Gentle Strength
by ZahraQ
Summary: Susan's title was Gentle. Yet there were many a times when she had to take up arms to defend her home. This is one story where her strength, courage and compassion were tested and she showed that she was deserving of the title her siblings had affectionately bestowed upon her: Queen Susan, the Stubborn.


**Gentle Strength**

Astride her snowy white mount, Delilah, Queen Susan looked around at the dense foliage that surrounded her. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she was not about to be deceived by looks. Trusted spies had delivered the news and it could not be wrong.

Two days ago, some of King Edmund's best spies had come to Cair Paravel to inform the tetrarch of the presence of fell beasts in the Shuddering Woods. At the time, High King Peter was away, fighting the northern giants; while the other two rulers of Narnia, King Edmund and Queen Lucy, were away in the Lone Islands to deal with some issues amongst the Calormene traders.

That was how Queen Susan was left to deal with the task of dealing with the fell beasts.

She sighed. Even after seven years, the remnants of the Witch's army were creating trouble now and then. The latest to be spotted were two werewolves and a hag, who had been witnessed attacking the creatures living near the afore-mentioned woods. Most able spies from the Narnian espionage were sent to scout the area and confirm the sighting.

The mighty quiver, gifted to the Queen by Father Christmas, was at its place on her back, and the magical Horn was at her waist. In short, the Gentle Queen was ready to fight off whatever danger lurked amidst the dark woods.

Since the reports had said implied there were only three fell beasts, the Queen had arrived with only thirty or so soldiers. Lord Peridan rode a little behind her at her left; while her personal guard, Sher, a giant golden brown Tiger, kept silently to her right. Following her brothers' example, the Queen rode at the head of the party, leading them. Whatever harm befell them, Susan would be the first to face it.

"Your Majesty," a Terabinthian Lord, who had accompanied them in this little adventure, addressed the Queen, "The foliage seems to thicken from here on. Is Her Majesty sure that she would not like to come to a place in the centre of the party? It will be safer for thee."

A small smile graced the beautiful face. "Lord Assad," Susan said without wholly turning towards the Lord, "It is by the will of Aslan that I ride at the head, for it was He who said that a true ruler should always be the first in every desperate attack, and the last in every desperate retreat."

Lord Assad smiled an indulgent smile. "However, your Majesty, a Lady should not be seen in a battlefield, let alone ride at the head."

Susan's anger was getting the better of her, but she was the spokesperson of Narnia at every diplomatic mission. This had taught her to control her sudden changes of emotion. "Indeed, a Lady is not commonly seen in a party heading for an ambush, but the same cannot be said for a Queen, can it?"

The question was met with silence, No one dared argue.

Once again, the Queen scanned her eyes over the trees. Then she turned to her most trusted counsellor, Lord Peridan. "What do you think Lord Peridan?" She asked, looking at the trees that stood so innocently bunched together, creating a thick, dense patch in the woods. However, a Narnian could tell the difference.

These trees were holly trees with a spirit in them, but that was not what was unusual. The trees surrounding them on the three other sides seemed normal, but the trees in front of them were suddenly so closely grown, that it looked like someone had intentionally created a barrier between them and what lay ahead.

"I would say, we press on." She liked that one thing about Peridan. He knew and trusted her. He knew that she did not usually take part in fighting. At the same time, he knew that if Narnia needed it, she would relentlessly implant each of her red-feathered arrows in Narnia's foes, never missing their mark. He trusted her ability to bring peace and happiness to her land as much as he trusted her ability when it came to wielding a weapon in her country's defence.

One nod from Susan and the party moved forward. The Eagle and Gryphoon scouts overhead let out a shrill cry and flew ahead. The Hounds and the Big Cats moved forward as one. Susan urged Delilah ahead.

An elephant in the party, Mr. Tiny, came charging forward at the trees. The metal armour on his head protected him from getting hurt, but the Trees groaned under the impact and parted. Susan knew that the trees of he Shuddering woods were grumpy but were not as hard as their counterparts anywhere else in Narnia.

The party continued their advance. Once they were in a large open meadow, everyone came to arms. The Queen was the last one to place an arrow in her bow. She looked towards the Lord, and he moved a little ahead, and called out in a strong voice, "Foes of Narnia show yourself!"

At first there was no reaction. No whisper amongst the tress. No movement in the dense foliage. And then, all of a sudden, loud cackling laughter burst forth, almost chilling. A hag, wearing an old, ragged cloak, came out of the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. Following her were the two werewolves.

"Oooooooh," the hag screeched. "The false Queen is here."

"Do not address Her Majesty that way, you foul creature," Lord Peridan answered back while the Queen looked for the best way to overpower these beasts. "She has been proclaimed as Queen Susan the Gentle, by the creator of this land, the mighty Lion, Aslan himself."

The hag only laughed a chilling laugh. It was clearly pointless to engage her in conversation.

Susan had a plan, and was just about to signal her men forward when something happened. The trees that been separated, now once again came together and engulfed half of her party within. She was aware that the soldiers would be able to pull back and escape the clutches of the tree, coming out on their other side. She silently told her herald to signal them that they had to retreat. The herald faun blew his horn.

That was it. Now they were ten against three, if she included her gryphoons. But her hopes were not high for long. For from the opposite side of the clearing, more and more fell beasts entering the clearing. She did not bother to count, knowing that it would only blow out her last flicker of hope.

She had two more archers by her side, and the distance between the beasts and the party was around eighty to ninty yards. Her studies had also told her that beside the werewolves, none of the fell beasts had the advantage of speed.

"Archers at the ready." The whole party tensed, understanding the need for quick and alert action.

"Werewolves," she said. And the three arrows simultaneously left the bows, flew in an arc, and reached their mark, killing three out of Aslan-only-knows-how-many werewolves. The opposite side charged. Quick as lightening, another round of arrows flew at them. Now that the army of fell beasts were charging, the werewolves became easy targets, them being the ones in front. Arrow after arrow impaled themselves into the wolves, killing them instantly. Only one wolf made it to enemy lines, where it had its head slashed off by one swish of Peridan's sword.

The other beasts were still far behind. Gryphoons and Eagles swooped down from the air and attacked the flying beasts with such vigour that none of them reached the Narnians.

Susan could see that several of her flying warriors had fallen. The loss hurt her, but she channelled that energy into aiming as many arrows at the fell beasts as possible. The enemy was advancing. The hags cackled madly as they shot electricity out of their fingertips. There were many creatures she had never imagined in her wildest nightmares. However, most of them, she had seen at the Stone Table on the night Aslan had been killed.

Something that was half bat, half monkey pulled her off her steed by her hair. She stabbed at it with her arrow before pulling it out and implanting it as far high as she could reach into the nearest hag's abdomen. The hag fell dead. She got back on her feet, her arrows flew out of the quiver at lightening speed.

Once the ambush had begun, Susan was too busy to realize that the trees and the fell beasts were stealthily leading her away from the immediate battlefield. However, her loyal personal guard Sher, the Tiger and Lord Peridan realizing this, came close to her that she could not be led anywhere without them.

The fell trees came into action once the trio were far enough. The warriors were picked one by one and thrown here and there. The soldiers left after their Queen and Lord were lead away did not give an easy time to the fell beasts but they were also being led farther off in the opposite direction. In a matter of a few minutes, there was a good mile between the Queen and her warriors. And they still moved further apart.

Susan already had many injuries on her person though none deep enough to bother her. A hag got a lucky shot with her dagger, and left a deep gash on her right cheek. The thin, rusted blade had done its job, ruining the beautiful face.

Peridan slashed off the hag's hands before beheading it. While he was doing this, another creature managed to stab the man thrice from behind. Lord Peridan fell to the ground. Sher was putting up fiercely against the opponents and managed to claw off the face of two, before a hag paralysed him with her magic and some creature of the dark stabbed him to death.

Susan, now limping, with a new injury to her thigh, saw that though her two partners had been gravely injured, there were only three fell beasts left. As the last remaining hag let out a bolt of lightning from her fingertips, Susan ducked below. The shot missed her completely and hit the other two fell beasts who were standing on her other side. The Queen was quick to aim a fatal shot right at the hag's heart and the vile creature fell.

This part of the battle at least had been won. However, Susan did not waste even one precious moment. Her mind was on her two fallen companions. Sher was closest to her but when she bent down to check his pulse, she could see that something had not only stabbed her loyal guard but also ripped his heart out. There was no hope of life for him. She turned to Lord Peridan.

He was gravely injured and bleeding heavily, but alive. Susan did not know how far she had come from the battlefield and did not even know if the fight there was still going on or not. If it was going on, then taking Peridan there would be simply foolish. She looked around, hoping against hope that things would turn better.

She knew this area! A retired healer of the palace lived not a few miles north of this place. That was where she would take her friend. But how? Susan knew that Peridan was in no condition to walk there. If she was being honest with herself, neither was she, but something had to be done, and soon.

She desperately looked around, and her eyes fell on her cloak. This cloak was as soft as the finest silk of Calormene, but was woven out of the threads of a special plant that grew only in the Western Mountains. The threads of this plant were strong as steel. The dwarf who had given it to her had sworn on his beard that the cloak would not tear, no matter what.

Quickly unclasping the holds, she flung off the deceptively soft material. With that done, she tore off her long skirt up till her knees. Further tearing it off into two, she went and sat just before Peridan's head.

"Please Aslan," She prayed fervently to the Lion as she shook the Lord. "Please Aslan, wake him up for a few minutes."

She shook him hard. Repeatedly. Lord Peridan woke up with a start. "…my…Queeen," he wheezed, too delirious to understand anything.

"Lord Peridan," she said in an authority-filled voice so that the man knew that he had no option but follow his Queen's order. It was not necessary to do so because generally, Peridan tried to fulfil all her wishes to the letter; but the ridiculousness of her demand made her use that tone. "I order you to climb onto my back."

Peridan was indeed knocked out of his senses because he actually did what he was asked to. Clumsily, he wrapped his arms around Susan before he passed out again. Susan had hoped that he would stay awake at least to wrap his legs around her waist but that did not happen. Still, it was enough.

She took the first piece of the torn skirt and used it to tightly tie Peridan's waist with hers. The whole of the man's weight would now fall on her back when she stood. Then she divided the second piece in two pieces further. With one, she tied both of Peridan's hand in front of her and with the second, she tied his ankles after pulling his legs forward.

With her own injuries, she would never be able to carry him that long. She had to disperse his weight on whole of her body. Next came out the cloak. She made a knot as the one made in necktie and created a loop of sort. Placing the knot securely on her upper forehead, she managed to get the other side of the loop under Peridan's bottom. The weight was now as light as it could be with the limited resources. Pulling herself up using a tree branch as leverage, she stood.

Immediately the injury in her thigh protested. Gritting her teeth, she started walking. She knew the adrenaline in her was the only thing propelling her forward and the moment she stopped moving, she would fall and not be able to get back up. She walked on, leaning on trees often to help her strength.

At one point, her shoes broke and she did not stop even to take it off. Eventually, they just fell off. Now barefoot, her journey became even more difficult. Even through her weariness, she knew she had to take the main trail road that ran through whole of Narnia. Maybe some loyal citizen would see her and get help. She managed to somehow get to the main road.

Her head had started spinning. It was becoming increasingly difficult to even stand up let alone walk and with a fully-grown up, brawny man on her back at that!

However, she was not affectionately called Queen Susan the Stubborn by her siblings for nothing. So, she walked on. The Lion had mercy on her, and Susan spotted three Eagles circling overhead, letting out shrill cries. She knew them! They were her brother's scouts! Peter was here!

Her joy overshadowed her weariness. Still, the renewed hope gave her strength and she walked on. She had taken a few steps, when she could make out her brother at the head of a huge army. Three people raced ahead. One was undoubtedly her brother atop his white Unicorn. The other was General Oreius and the third was also a Centaur but she could not recognize him.

For an instant, all three stopped short at such a sight. Then, immediately Oreius produced a long dagger and cut off all the cloths binding Peridan to her body. The cloak was gently pulled off and an involuntary sigh of relief left the tired Queen's mouth. Her brother was here. Everything would be, by the Lion's grace, all right. Peridan was pulled up on the back of the second Centaur and General Oreius scooped the Queen in his arms.

"Pete..." Susan had to tell him to help the soldiers. They could not abandon the Narnian warriors. "Pete...the fell...Woods...separated us...soldiers...need help..." she mumbled.

Peter's reassuring words soothed her and her brother's hand gently caressing her forehead was the last thing she felt before she passed out cold

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Here's the edited one. Many thanks to weirdnessunleashed for editing this.

There will be one more chapter to the story. In the next chapter we will see the reactions of several people: Peter, Edmund, Lucy and of course...Lord Peridan!

So, add the story to your subscription if you want to read ahead.

ZQ


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